While the JGR team immediately brought out a backup car, it meant Busch will start the fourth race in the 10-race Chase from the back of the field — 43rd — instead of from the 18th place where he qualified.

And with track position extremely important — especially at a 1.5-mile oval like Kansas — Busch has put himself behind a giant 8-ball.

He came to Kansas just 12 points back of Chase leader, and JGR teammate, Matt Kenseth.

And most prognosticators, including this one, were predicting this year’s Chase would be a three-way battle among Busch, Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson.

It also comes in a season of supposed renewal for the 28-year-old Las Vegas native after missing NASCAR’s version of playoffs in two of the past four years and finishing last among Chase drivers in two of three he qualified for before that.

In fact his best Chase finish was a lowly eighth in 2010.

His stats for races at Kansas are even worse.

In 12 previous visits Busch doesn’t have a single top-five finish but has racked up seven finishes of 20th or worse.

What makes this all out of whack, is the fact that over the same period Busch has won 24 Sprint Cup races, second only to Johnson, who has won five championships in the No. 48 Chevrolet.

Busch himself recognizes the Chase futility of his Sprint Cup career.

While he wasn’t talking about his woes in both the Chase and at Kansas after his spin on Saturday, Busch earlier in the week said he thought he might have turned the corner on the bad luck with three solid finishes so far this year.

“This year is definitely the best start we’ve ever been off to,” he said of his second, second and fifth-place results in the first three Chase races. “We’ve never finished second or had three top fives in a row to start a Chase.”

Busch, prior to what happened Saturday, in fact was confident that maybe, just maybe, he had thrown the monkey of his back.

“This is a new time for us,” he said. “2013 can hopefully be our season where we continue to knock off some of these good finishes.”

Busch remembers, though, that he had similar kind of start to the Chase in another year — 2011 — and that fell apart at the midway mark.

“We had an opportunity to win the championship in 2011,” he said. “We went to Talladega (in the sixth race) and we got crashed, then we went to Martinsville and we got crashed late in the going after running 1-2 with my teammate all race long.

“That was sort of our year. The championship was essentially out of reach, it was over with.”

Busch is hoping that even with Saturday’s misfortunes he can bounce back on Sunday and escape Kansas in one piece, or at least with his championship hopes intact.

FINISH LINES

NASCAR has quashed rumours it will let sports broadcasting giant ESPN out of the final year of its contract to televise Sprint Cup and Nationwide races next season to make way for new rights holders NBC and NBC Sports. In a statement Saturday, Steve Herbst, NASCAR V-P of broadcasting and production said it would be business as usual for 2014. ... Frank Kimmel clinched his record 10th ARCA Racing Series driver’s championship after winning Friday night’s season-finale race at Kansas Speedway. ... Vancouver’s Scott Hargrove claimed the USF2000 championship by finishing third in Houston as part of the IndyCar weekend in the No. 38 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing Mazda. The 18-year-old Hargrove is expected to move up to the Pro Mazda Series next season.

HINCHCLIFFE FUMING

James Hinchcliffe’s day in the first race of the IZOD IndyCar Series double header Shell Penzoil Grand Prix of Houston ended after just six feet.

On the second of two standing start tries, Hinchcliffe — who qualified sixth — stalled his No. 27 Andretti AutoSport Chevrolet on the grid and before he had a chance to re-start he was hit from behind by Ed Carpenter in the No. 20 Chevrolet.

A clearly frustrated Hinchcliffe hinted the faulty start was result of IndyCar insisting on a standing start in race that had major problems with the temporary street circuit all weekend.

“I don’t want to get into it right now,” Hinchcliffe said. “I am furious. I know what happened but I don’t want to talk about what happened.”

The Oakville native, of course, is also in the midst of contract negotiations with Andretti and is said to have been offered a deal to race next season with KV Racing.

“We had a great qualifying effort and it just sucks that we didn’t get the opportunity to put the car in Victory Lane,” he said. “Oh, well, we can start all over again tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon won the first of the two races with Simone de Silvestro second and Justin Wilson third.

While the JGR team immediately brought out a backup car, it meant Busch will start the fourth race in the 10-race Chase from the back of the field — 43rd — instead of from the 18th place where he qualified.

And with track position extremely important — especially at a 1.5-mile oval like Kansas — Busch has put himself behind a giant 8-ball.

He came to Kansas just 12 points back of Chase leader, and JGR teammate, Matt Kenseth.

And most prognosticators, including this one, were predicting this year’s Chase would be a three-way battle among Busch, Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson.